


All the Kingdom Light Shines just for Me and You

by Fionakevin073



Series: Long Live All the Magic We Made [12]
Category: The Tudors (TV)
Genre: Anger, F/M, Five Stages of Grieving, Guilt, Re-Marriage, compassion - Freeform, or five stages of coming to terms with realising you were wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 16:25:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11581803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fionakevin073/pseuds/Fionakevin073
Summary: Where Henry has to deal with the truth. Part 12 of Long Live All the Magic We Made.





	All the Kingdom Light Shines just for Me and You

**Author's Note:**

> A/N Hey guys, this prompt was asked for by many who asked for more Henry/Anne moments. This one focuses on the day of Anne/Henry second wedding of sorts and kinda deals with Henry’s thoughts about learning that Anne was innocent of the crimes she was accused of and that whole time period. Thank you all for your support! 
> 
>  
> 
> Until next time, Fionakevin073

 

 

The day that Cromwell is sentenced to die, Henry is sitting in the council chamber alone, looking over some gifts that he wishes to send for his children. He wishes to send a pear necklace for Elizabeth,—as she had recently developed a fondness for them— and four rocking horses for his sons but he can’t decide on the details. Should they be painted red or blue? He can’t quite remember which colour ribbon each of his sons were given when they were first born and after trying to remember—which he mostly succeeds in doing, since those are the boys favourite colours— he decides to ask Anne just to be sure. 

 

“Yes, that’s what I will do,” He murmurs, tracing the sketch of the design of Elizabeth’s necklace. It was meant to mirror her mother’s, with the same design except with a golden _ET_ instead, for Elizabeth Tudor. He believes that Elizabeth will be most pleased and the thought causes him to smile. He misses her—all of them— dearly and decides to invite them to court or at the very least go and visit them when the execution was over with and the chaos had settled. 

 

He’s sitting there thinking of his children and completely and utterly unaware of what is happening on the tower. It’s quiet, peaceful even and Henry is sitting there waiting for the canon to sound when— 

 

“Your majesty!” His council enters the room hurriedly, their eyes wide and startled. 

 

“Forgive us for the intrusion your majesty,  but—but—“ 

 

“What is it?” He questions dangerously, his hands curling into fists. Damn Cromwell to hell, he has caused him enough trouble. 

 

“Is he dead?” 

 

Silence. 

 

“Answer me!” 

 

And then finally, finally the Duke of Norfolk tells him what happened. Henry listens numbly as Norfolk confesses the truth. About Anne. 

 

About Charles. 

 

About everything. 

 

How none of the charges were true. 

 

How Charles and Cromwell had lied to him and played him. 

 

How Henry had sentenced to death—unknowingly— four innocent people. 

 

How he had nearly killed an innocent woman—his _wife._

 

Henry goes through five stages. 

 

The first one being denial. 

 

He denies it at first and soon enough the papers and documents and diaries of all those involved in Anne’s trial are shoved onto the council table as they pour over the details and information. On one of the days that Anne had supposedly been unfaithful, she had been recovering from the baby she had lost. Another, her ‘lover’ had been at a different castle than she. The evidence is so blindingly _false_ that Henry wants to be sick. 

 

The second stage is anger. 

 

He beats his hands bloody against the wall and yells at his advisors and curses them all to hell and spends a full day or two pacing and yelling and filled with such _rage_ that he nearly claws out his own eyes. 

 

(Even though he doesn’t say it, the person he is most angry with is himself) 

 

The third is that he feels the need to bargain with God. With everyone. 

 

Cromwell is executed and Charles is sentenced to death along with the Spanish Ambassador but Henry still needs two more men—guilty men— to condemn to make it even. To make it right. An eye for an eye is what the bible says correct? A tooth for a tooth. 

 

Anne has given him five children. One daughter and four sons. 

 

Perhaps she has already made it even. 

 

The fourth stage is depression. 

 

He spends a day curled up in his chambers, guilt eating at his stomach as he stares up at the canopy. He doesn’t move as the sun rises and sets and merely lays there, feeling unworthy of life. 

 

Unworthy of everything. 

 

And the final stage is acceptance. 

 

He knows the truth now—much to his eternal relief— and he accepts it. He was wrong and Anne is now his wife again once more. Once again the Queen of England. 

 

For the fist time in a week, he returns to court and his heart jolts when she kneels down in front of him. She is so beautiful, his Anne (he had always been aware of this, even if he never wanted to admit it) and though part of him wants to hug her and apologise until his dying day, the other is unsure. Insecure almost. 

 

When she asks for him to pardon Charles, that insecurity deepens. 

 

_Does she love him? Does he love her? Would she rather he die instead of Charles?_

 

But then something changes over the course of those several moments. He can’t completely pardon Charles—his advisors and his country would never allow it— but he doesn’t want to hurt her either. If Henry is sure of anything in this whole mess, it’s that. 

 

And so he finds himself standing in front of her and allows Charles to have a quick and painless death and his son to succeed him but even though she smiles in gratitude, he catches the small hint of despair in her eyes once she realises that Charles will still die—even though Henry is furious with him and hasn’t been that close with him over the past few years, he isn’t pleased that his closest friend will die at his order— regardless of her pleading for his life. 

 

The thought of her hurting because of him pains him more than he wishes to admit and he desperately wishes to ease her sorrow (though she is doing a good job of hiding it) so he whispers in her ear that she can go see him whenever she wishes so that she can say goodbye. 

 

And that’s that. 

 

— 

 

_Close to two months later_

 

Henry’s breath hitches when he sees Anne walking down the aisle towards him, staring steadily ahead. Westminster Abbey is silent on the inside but he can still hear the shouts—more like good wishes for Anne (less so for him)— of the crowd outside. The boys and Elizabeth are walking beside her at her train. They are all dressed in white and green—the Tudors colours— and look absolutely stunning, causing his heart to swell with pride and his mouth to twist into a wide smile that he quickly tries to twist into a more serious, kingly expression. 

 

Anne’s hair has been left down—similar to her first coronation— so that it tumbles down to her waist, though beautiful star shaped diamonds have been clipped to her dark locks. Her gown is— though Henry doesn’t know much about dresses— is without a doubt the most beautiful thing he has ever encountered. It’s a pure white gown that exposes her collarbone and has diamonds embroidered on the lower part of her skirt, so that it truly seems like Anne is _shining._ Her jewellery is simple though elegant and it gives the image that Anne is this angel that has come to grace Earth with her heavenly grace. 

 

The crowd is equally enthralled with her, judging by the whispers of delight and their awestruck expressions at the sight of their Queen. 

 

Anne reaches him eventually and before he knows it Thomas Cranmer is gently lowering a crown onto Anne’s head and he declares, “I hereby declare you, Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII and the rightful Queen of England!” 

 

“God Save the Queen!” The crowd yells, throwing their hats into the air. 

 

“God Save the Queen!” 

 

And before Henry can stop himself he rises from his throne beside her and moves so that he is at the bottom of the stairs leading to their respective thrones, turns to look at Anne and then kneels in front of her. His action silences the room and draws the attention of everyone and just as his eyes meet Anne’s—who is looking at him with an aloof expression— he exclaims, “God Save the Queen!” 

 

For as long as Henry lives, he won’t ever forget the thunderous reply. 

 

He stares into his wife’s eyes and something inside of him cracks and he thinks that for the first time in many, many years or perhaps for the first time ever, they are going to have a real _true_ partnership. 

 

It almost feels _magical,_ this feeling. 

 

It feels as though the Kingdom is _shining._

 

— 

 

End. 


End file.
